Me & My Guitar: Tuk Smith
Biters frontman, Tuk, got himself an eBay bargain with this 70s Ibanez gem
1 “I’ve never seen one like it before. It’s a 1973 Ibanez V, and it’s what they call a Lawsuit guitar. I guess a lot of companies were getting their guitars made in Japan in the 70s and companies would take the specs of a Gibson and make their own. Then they got sued and there was a lawsuit, so that’s why they’re called that. This one is cool, I’ve never seen one like it again. I got it from eBay for $400 – and you’re taking a gamble when you buy a guitar from eBay but it plays so fucking good. It sounds amazing. It was already beat when I got it and I tour a lot, so aesthetically it doesn’t matter if it’s in pristine condition – I just need a workhorse.”
2 “I’ve used this for 30 shows in a row and all I’ve really had to do to it was put some Grover tuners on there, I love the Grovers; and then I put a JB from Seymour Duncan in the neck position. The other pickup is some weird original one that came with it in the 70s, I think. I don’t really use it and it looks crazy so I kept it.”
3 “One of the things about me is that I like guitars that nobody else has. If I can find something weird, quirky and something that has personality, that’s great. It obviously needs to sound good as well. On our last record, we had a quite a few guitars to choose from for tracking – ’72 Goldtops… all kinds of amazing guitars, but this $400 Lawsuit guitar sounded better for most of the rhythms, which is crazy – but I think it’s in the player – you don’t need the most expensive guitar, if you can make it sound good, the touch is all that matters.
4 “I’d never really wanted a Flying V before but I had a dream that I was playing one on stage, so that automatically got me attracted to a V. Then I started researching, because they kind of have a metal stigma attached to them. So I checked out who used to play them in the mid to late 70s. Tom Petty was playing a Flying V and he made it look killer. I’m a huge Tom Petty fan, so I thought that was awesome. Then, of course, Marc Bolan played one for a while. I think Keith Richards played a V too [in 1969 live at Hyde Park - Ed]… so they were good for rock ’n’ roll. And they look great, they look space age.”